BEHIND an innocuous glass door on Carp St can be found some of the Bega Valley’s most forward-thinking innovators.

Armed with an array of laptops and an Internet connection, the minds behind the soon-to-be-officially-launched co-working space have already created a couple of mobile apps for local businesses – but there are bigger and brighter ideas in the planning pipeline.

COWS Near the Coast’s chief coordinator is Liam O’Duibhir, a cloud computing consultant and IT specialist.

He said the working space will allow for productive collaboration between like-minded “techies”.

“This space is all about knowledge sharing,” Mr O’Duibhir said.

“But it’s also about a cultural change – making people aware there is a lot more tech happening in the Bega Valley now.”

Mr O’Duibhir said COWS will host monthly events throughout 2014, which started with a mobile app developers workshop last week.

Connecting with school leavers will be February’s focus, while March will see the third annual entrepreneurs start-up camp.

“A lot of talented youth leaves this area, but COWS will offer them a different stream to pursue and hopefully entice them to stay here,” Mr O’Duibhir said.

“The knowledge sharing and collaboration is a way to rapidly accelerate their skills and the hope is anyone involved can begin to carve out their own tech path.

“Companies will form – it will be an entrepreneurial place.”

Mr O’Duibhir said COWS Near the Coast will also foster close connections with the ACT’s Entry29, a more fully realised co-working space based at the Australian National University.

While it’s early days for COWS, it is already making some big waves.

The group is currently pitching PhonicPath – the mobile app that won last year’s entrepreneurs camp (BDN, 13/3/13).